The country is hoping to take part in the second round of negotiations which is likely to take place later this year or early next year
Taiwan News
Date: 2018/01/25
By: Teng Pei-ju, Taiwan News, Staff Reporter
TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) congratulated the 11 signatory countries for concluding the negotiations of an Asia-Pacific trade pact on
Fan Chen-kuo, deputy secretary-general of MOFA’s Taiwan-Japan Relations Association (Teng Pei-ju／Taiwan News)
January 22, and said the country had expressed strong interest in taking part in the second round of negotiations to Japan, the pact’s chief negotiator.
The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) will be signed in March in Chile without the United States, which withdrew from the negotiations of the pact previously known as the TPP a year ago under the Trump administration.
Japan being the leading force of the pact, its support for Taiwan to join the CPTPP is obviously important, but whether it will use the issue to strike a bargain with Taiwan on the lifting of restrictions on imports of Fukushima foods, which Taiwan has so far resisted, remains a question.
Fan Chen-kuo (范振國), deputy secretary-general of MOFA’s Taiwan-Japan Relations Association, said on Thursday “the government would not rule out the possibility even though it had not received any pressure as such from Japan for the moment.”
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